Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Barb and Max Allan Collins; Zane Grey Theater

From Barb and Al Collins:

Book Signing: Mystery Cat Books, Cedar Rapids, IA, 2 - 4 pm

Barb and I are signing at Mystery Cat Books this Saturday. We’ll have both QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE and ANTIQUES FLEE MARKET available, and many rare out-of-print M.A.C. items will be on hand, as well. It’s possible Ed Gorman may drop by, which provides a sighting opportunity second only to Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

----------------------------------Dick Powell

Happy hoofer, hardboiled star, TV production magnate-I ran across this while looking for something else. Consider all the shows that came from this. I really do miss anthology series.

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, sometimes simply called Zane Grey Theater, is a Western anthology series which ran on CBS from 1956-1961.

Zane Grey Theater was ground-breaking in that six episodes were developed into subsequent series: (1) Trackdown (from "Badge of Honor") starring Robert Culp as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman, (2) Johnny Ringo (from "Man Alone"), starring Don Durant, both on CBS, (3) The Rifleman (from "The Sharpshooter") with Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain, and (4) Stagecoach West starring Wayne Rogers and Robert Bray[episode needed], both on ABC, and (5) The Westerner (from "Trouble at Tres Cruces"), starring Brian Keith as Dave Blassingame, and (6) Black Saddle (from "Threat of Violence" with Chris Alcaide instead of series star Peter Breck as Clay Culhane), both on NBC. In addition, Wanted: Dead or Alive, with Steve McQueen playing the bounty hunter Josh Randall, was a CBS spinoff of Trackdown, and Law of the Plainsman, starring Michael Ansara as a Harvard-educated, Native American U.S. Marshal was an NBC spin-off of The Rifleman.

4 comments:

Given the genre's sad comatose state in 2009, kids nowadays would find it hard to believe that westerns dominated TV in the '50s and early '60s. And ZANE GREY THEATER and all the spinoffs were only a few of the prime-time "adult" westerns, never mind Roy, Gene, Range Rider etc on Saturday morning TV.